Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Developing An Instrument To Measure Group Dynamics Awareness: A Mixed Methods Study, John Weng

Dissertations

In a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, adaptive leaders are needed more than ever. Based on group relations programs developed by the Tavistock Institute, a pedagogy known as case-in-point has recently been brought to prominence and incorporated into leadership development programs. These methods claim to develop systems thinking and individuals’ leadership capacity with little prior empirical research.

This mixed methods exploratory study explored individual awareness of group dynamics, a key outcome in case-in-point programs, and adaptive leadership theory. The goal was to create an instrument to measure awareness of group dynamics: the Group Dynamics Awareness Questionnaire …

Development Of Leader Voice And Leader Silence Scales: How And Why Leaders Choose To Remain Silent Or Speak Up During Situations Of Workplace Aggression, Katherine L. Dickins

Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to investigate the factors that drive leaders to speak up or remain silent when witnessing workplace aggression and to develop scales to measure leader voice and leader silence. While research on employee voice and silence exists, leader voice and silence need more theoretical development. I used an exploratory sequential mixed-method design to address these gaps. Subjects: Study one included 26 graduate management students and 35 leaders across multiple industries in the United States who witnessed workplace aggression in their unit. Study 2 included 345 people who supervised others at work. Instruments: Seven open-ended questions asking respondents to …

Indirect Aggression And Victimization: Investigating Instrument Psychometrics, Gender Differences, And Its Relationship To Social Information Processing, Taylor Steeves

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study of indirect bullying behaviors, relational aggression and social aggression, has been of theoretical importance and interest to researchers and psychologists within the last few decades. In this investigation, using a convenience sample of 451 late adolescents attending a private university in the mid-Atlantic U.S., I examined the factor structure of two measures of indirect bullying, the Young Adult Social Behavior Scale – Victim (YASB-V) and the Young Adult Social Behavior Scale – Perpetrator (YASB-P). Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), I found that the YASB-V comprised a four-factor model, differing from the model that had been identified in the …

Elevating Followers: Confirmatory Factor Analysis On The Revised Kelley Followership Questionnaire, Sherrie A. Lynn

PhD in Organizational Leadership

Every person is a follower, and followers and leaders are both equally important to the leadership process, yet followership literature pales in comparison to leadership literature. One problem was that followership did not have a valid and reliable selfassessment. The purpose of this study was to advance the theory of followership by conducting confirmatory factor analysis on the revised Kelley Followership Questionnaire (KFQ-R; Ligon, 2016) with data collected from employees at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The KFQ-R and three additional instruments to assess convergent validity were administered in December 2022. Data analysis included seven iterations of factor analysis conducted …

The Development And Validation Of Implicit Measures For Black Women Stereotypes, Natasha Pierre

MSU Graduate Theses

The struggles that Black women face in everyday life are underrepresented in the research literature. Part of these hardships involve negative stereotypes that are associated with Black women. The purpose of this project was to create measures to assess the implicit association between stereotypic attributes and Black women. This study used Implicit Association Test (IAT) procedures to develop implicit measures of Black women stereotypes and investigate relationships with theoretically related explicit (self-report) measures in a sample of university students. Results indicated the implicit measures have acceptable psychometric properties (low stimuli misclassification error rates and adequate internal consistency) and sufficient variability …

The Development And Validation Of Implicit Measures Of Job Satisfaction For Students, Xin Wei Ong

MSU Graduate Theses

Job satisfaction is one of the most researched topics in industrial-organizational psychology and explicit (self-report) measures are the most common assessment method. However, self-report measures are contaminated by inaccurate self-knowledge and impression management artifacts, which may weaken the predictive validity of the measures. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) might address these limitations because the procedure is based on reaction times in classification tasks. This research developed personalized implicit measures of job satisfaction using IATs and investigated their construct validity in a college sample. The construct validity of the measures was investigated with a multitrait-multimethod design. Results indicated problems with some …

The Oq-45: The Structure Of Mental Health Symptoms During Psychotherapy, Lindsay Arader

Theses and Dissertations

The structure of the Outcome Questionnaire-45 (OQ-45; Lambert et al., 2004b) was examined across three time points in a sample of 199 psychotherapy clients at an outpatient community clinic in the greater New York area. Five models—a one-factor model, two-factor (oblique) model, three-factor (oblique) model, two sub-factor bifactor model, and three sub-factor bifactor model—were tested at baseline, 8 weeks, and 16 weeks. The two sub-factor bifactor model fit the data best at baseline, and the three sub-factor bifactor model fit the data best at 8 weeks and 16 weeks. These results demonstrate that the OQ-45 items load onto one general …

Jangle Fallacy: Is Grit Distinct From Other Psychological Constructs?, Natasha Godkin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper assessed the redundancy of the construct of grit (Crede, Tynan, Harms, 2017) compared to other similar constructs using structural equation modeling to remove the effect of measurement error. A series of models regressed grit and its subdomains (passion and perseverance of effort) on self-control, conscientiousness, achievement striving, and resilience. The R-squared values for these models ranged from 0.62 to 0.89. It is concluded that the concept of grit is mostly redundant with other constructs and is therefore an example of a Jangle fallacy (Kelley, 1927). The unique aspect of grit is mostly related to its passion …

Anxious And Oppositional Behavior Factors In A Community Sample Of Youth With Selective Mutism, Andrew Gerthoffer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Selective mutism (SM) is a childhood disorder characterized by a failure to speak in certain situations (e.g., school, social situations; APA, 2013). SM is best assessed using a comprehensive multimodal strategy (Dow et al., 1995; Krysanski, 2003; Viana et al., 2009; Wong, 2010), including parent reports of a child’s behavior. One commonly used parent report measure is the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001). The purpose of the present study was to identify specific CBCL items that may help substantiate SM subtypes in children. The study used confirmatory factor analysis to determine whether a two-factor structure (anxious and …

Development And Validation Of Implicit Measures Of Organizational Climate, Kailey Ann Meyer

MSU Graduate Theses

Organizational climate is the shared perceptions that employees hold about their experiences in the workplace. The current research on organizational climate relies upon explicit (self-report) measures, which can be contaminated by impression management and inaccurate self-knowledge artifacts. This research used Implicit Association Test (IAT) procedures to develop implicit measures of selected aspects of organizational climate. The study examined the relationships of the implicit organizational climate measures with theoretically related explicit measures according to a multitrait-multimethod design. A series of confirmatory factor analyses of latent trait models were used to assess convergent and discriminant validity evidence. While results provided some construct …

Vicarious Posttraumatic Growth Among Helping Professionals: Factor Analysis And An Investigation Of Construct Validity, Jennifer D. Deaton

Theses and Dissertations

The impact of trauma has varying effects on both clients and helping professionals ranging from negative responses (e.g. secondary traumatic stress [STS], compassion fatigue, and burnout) to positive responses (e.g. vicarious posttraumatic growth [VPTG], vicarious resilience, and compassion satisfaction [CS]). Vicarious posttraumatic growth is the experience of growth as a result of indirect trauma exposure. Scholars have exclusively investigated VPTG using the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI); a measure of the extent an individual experiences growth experienced after trauma. The PTGI has not held its factor structure when used among indirect trauma exposure. The purpose of this study was to explore …

Measuring The Connective Action Of Black Lives Matter Activists: A Psychometric Investigation Into Twitter Data, Paige Alfonzo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many protest movements from the last twenty-first century have become increasingly networked and personalized. Several scholars have tapped into this change coining terms such as participatory action, digitally mediated action, computer-mediated communication, issue-based organization, and what I focus on in this project, connective action. Building on the ideas percolating across the literary landscape at the time, Bennett and Segerberg (2012) introduced the logic of connective action based on emergent characteristics they observed in post-2010 large-scale social movements. Both the logic of connective action and related work have become deeply ingrained in today's social movement scholarship. As such, I felt it …

Cross-Cultural Validation Of The Korean Version Of The Multicultural Counseling Self-Efficacy Scale-Racial Diversity Form (K-Mcse-Rd) For Korean Counselors, Sung Yong Park

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Faced with growing racial and ethnic diversity in South Korea, the demand for culturally competent counseling services by multicultural clients has increased. The current study aims to contribute to the research of multicultural counseling and multicultural counselor training by examining psychometric properties of the culturally adapted Multicultural Counseling Self-Efficacy Scale-Racial Diversity form for use in South Korea. The purposes of the study were threefold: (a) establish content validity during the translation and cross-cultural adaptation stage for the MCSE-RD to the context of multicultural counseling in South Korea; (b) test plausible underlying factor structures and report internal consistency reliability estimates of …

Empirical Assessment Of Callous-Unemotional Traits In Preschool: A Comparison Of Confirmatory Factor Analysis And Network Analysis, Pevitr Singh Bansal

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Callous – unemotional (CU) traits are a key factor in understanding the persistence and severity of conduct problems. The factor structure of CU traits has been primarily examined through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in childhood and adolescent samples, yet little research has examined the structure of CU traits in preschool. Further, current CFA models have yielded poor – to – marginally acceptable fit, suggesting the need for a more nuanced approach in understanding the structure of CU traits in early childhood using an interitem approach (i.e., network analysis). Within a sample of 109 preschool children (M age = 4.77, …

Posterior Predictive Model Checking Of Local Misfit For Bayesian Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Chi Hang Au

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Posterior predictive model checks (PPMC) are one Bayesian model-data fit approach. Thus far, PPMC for Confirmatory Factor Analytic applications focused primarily on global fit evaluation, ignoring the nuanced information in local misfit diagnostics. This study developed a PPMC approach for local misfit and applied it to a test-taking motivation scale. If the PPMC approach is effective, fit conclusions derived from the PPMC approach should be congruent with the fit conclusions derived from the Frequentist approach. Number of item-pairs flagged as misfitting and number of disagreements were computed to evaluate congruence. Congruence is achieved if the number of item-pairs flagged as …

The Development And Validation Of Implicit Measures Of Emotional Intelligence, Ricardo R. Brooks

MSU Graduate Theses

Emotional intelligence (EI) has attracted much attention in the decades since Goleman’s (1995) claim that EI is important for success in a wide range of social and professional roles. With this interest has come much debate about whether EI should be defined and measured as a set of abilities or as a set of dispositional self-perceptions. The latter is typically assessed with self-report measures that are susceptible to contamination related to inaccurate self-knowledge and impression management artifacts – problems that may be mitigated by implicit measures. This research used Implicit Association Test (IAT) procedures to develop implicit measures of EI …

Psychometric Evaluation Of The Counselor Supervisor Self-Efficacy Scale, Brittany Murphy

Dissertations

Counselor supervision is an integral component in the development of counselors. While counseling and supervision share some similarities, they are distinct competencies that develop separately and therefore must be measured separately. The belief that one can perform the tasks associated with a particular role is conceptualized as self-efficacy, so supervisor self-efficacy requires its own scale to be measured appropriately. A descriptive correlational survey research design was used to examine the six factor structure of the Counselor Supervisor Self-Efficacy Scale (CSSES). Two hundred and five counselor supervisors completed the CSSES, an impression management scale, and a demographic survey. Confirmatory factor analysis …

Confirmatory Factor Analysis Of The Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire In Vegans And Omnivores, Sydney Heiss

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) has been shown to be a valid and reliable measure of eating-related pathology; however, the original four-factor structure has proven difficult to replicate in diverse samples of respondents. Based on the differences in dietary patterns in vegans that are often interpreted as indicative as greater eating disorder symptoms, proper measurement of eating disorder measures is especially important. The purpose of this study was to compare goodness-of-fit of five alternative models of the EDE-Q in a sample of vegans recruited from the community (i.e., individuals refraining from all animal products, n = 395) and undergraduate …

Exploring The Relationships Between Social Skills, Mental Health And Behavior In A Child Welfare Involved Population, Megan Anne Feely

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Promoting child well-being is one of the three primary goals of the child welfare system. In contrast to safety and permanency, the other two primary goals, that are precisely defined in the federal statute, well-being remains undefined and poorly understood. Recently, the Administration on Children Youth and Families (ACYF) highlighted one facet of child well-being -- social and emotional well-being -- as a particular focus of the agency. These categories, i.e. behavior, emotional development and social functioning collectively are referred to as social and emotional well-being. The relationship between these constructs is unknown although it is likely that they are …

The Effect Of Anchoring Vignettes On Factor Structures: Student Effort As An Example, Carolyn A. Miesen

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Anchoring vignettes are used as a methodological technique for removing differential interpretation of response categories (DIRC) from scores on subjective self-report measures (King, Murray, Slomon, & Tandon, 2004). This technique requires participants to read one or more short scenarios, or vignettes, designed to represent various levels of a construct. Vignette ratings are used as an indication of DIRC, which is a source of differential item functioning (DIF). Prior research primarily used indirect methods for evaluating vignette quality. In response, the present set of studies proposes using invariance testing as a more direct evaluation of how the use of anchoring vignettes …

Empirical Analysis Of Socio-Cognitive Factors Affecting Security Behaviors And Practices Of Smartphone Users, Joseph P. Simpson

CCE Theses and Dissertations

The overall security posture of information systems (IS) depends on the behaviors of the IS users. Several studies have shown that users are the greatest vulnerability to IS security. The proliferation of smartphones is introducing an entirely new set of risks, threats, and vulnerabilities. Smartphone devices amplify this data exposure problem by enabling instantaneous transmission and storage of personally identifiable information (PII) by smartphone users, which is becoming a major security risk. Moreover, companies are also capitalizing on the availability and powerful computing capabilities of these smartphone devices and developing a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) program, which makes companies susceptible to divulgence …

Addressing Serial-Order And Negative-Keying Effects: A Mixed-Methods Study, Jerusha J. Gerstner

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Researchers have studied item serial-order effects on attitudinal instruments by considering how item-total correlations differ based on the item’s placement within a scale (e.g., Hamilton & Shuminsky, 1990). In addition, other researchers have focused on item negative-keying effects on attitudinal instruments (e.g., Marsh, 1996). Researchers consistently have found that negatively-keyed items relate to one another above and beyond their relationship to the construct intended to be measured. However, only one study (i.e., Bandalos & Coleman, 2012) investigated the combined effects of serial-order and negative-keying on attitudinal instruments. Their brief study found some improvements in fit when attitudinal items were presented …

Treatment Matching In Ptsd: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis Based On Therapeutic Mechanisms Of Action, Benjamin Trachik

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study takes an initial step toward deriving a method for empirically based, theory-driven treatment matching in a military population suffering from PTSD. Along with the more overt symptoms of PTSD (e.g., persistent hyperarousal), secondary cognitive symptoms have also been shown to be significantly associated with avoidance and intrusive symptoms, as well as contribute to functional impairment. Based on the factor analytic and treatment literature for PTSD, it appears that there are two central mechanisms associated with beneficial therapeutic change that underlies both CPT and PE treatments (i.e., habituation, changes in cognitions). Additionally, different traumatic events and peritraumatic responses …

The Development And Validation Of Implicit Measures Of Emotional Intelligence, Louis Leo Oberdiear

MSU Graduate Theses

Emotional intelligence (EI) has attracted much attention in the decades since Goleman's (1995) claim that EI is important for success in a wide range of social and professional roles. With this interest has come much debate about whether EI should be defined and measured as a set of abilities or as a set of dispositional self-perceptions. The latter is typically assessed with self-report measures that are susceptible to contamination related to inaccurate self-knowledge and impression management artifacts – problems that may be mitigated by implicit measures. This research used Implicit Association Test (IAT) procedures to develop implicit measures of EI …

Investigating The Influence Of Interpretation On Children's National Park Stewardship Behaviors Using The Elaboration Likelihood Model, Susan Vezeau

All Dissertations

Interpretation efforts are commonly used in park and protected area management to communicate information about a place to visitors, and in some cases, are also intended to persuade visitors to engage in stewardship behaviors. The National Park Service (NPS) Junior Rangers (JR) programs are intended to develop a sense of stewardship within participating children; however, few studies have explored the effectiveness of these programs. In addition, despite considerable research investigating interpretation and its influence, further exploration of the factors that influence stewardship behaviors in participants of interpretation are needed. The purpose of this Dissertation research was to: 1) develop scales …

Assessing Ethical Reasoning Skills: Initial Validity Evidence For The Ethical Reasoning Identification Test, Kristen Lynn Smith

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Employers, policymakers, parents and other stakeholders value ethical reasoning (ER) skills. Thus, to help students actively engage in the ER process, stakeholders at James Madison University (JMU) redefined ER, implemented campus-wide ER interventions, and created the Ethical Reasoning Identification Test (ERIT-1) to measure students’ ability to engage in a lower-level step of the ER process. The current study examined the factor structure and reliability of the ERIT-1. Confirmatory Factor Analysis results provided support for a unidimensional factor structure, meaning stakeholders can report and analyze total scores for the ERIT-1. ERIT-1 scores also demonstrated good reliability. Correlation analyses provided initial external …

Towards Construct Validity: Investigating The Structure Of The Mental Toughness In Sport Questionnaire (Mtsq-32), Kelly Jane Foelber

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

In effort to gather construct validity evidence for a new measure of mental toughness, the Mental Toughness in Sport Questionnaire (MTSQ-32), confirmatory factor analyses were performed to examine the plausibility of competing theoretical models. This was done in accordance with Benson's (1998) strong program of construct validity. Four primary models were tested: a unidimensional model, a five-factor model based upon social-cognitive personality theory, a five-factor model based upon the commonly identified attributes of mental toughness, and a 10-factor multidimensional model combining the two five-factor models. Further models were tested that expanded upon the four former by including a reverse coding …

Continuity Of Care In Children’S Mental Health: Development Of A Measure, Juliana I. Tobon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Continuity of care, which is how a patient experiences care over time as coherent and linked, has been identified as an indicator of health system performance and is considered an ethical principle of care. Yet, no instrument exists to measure continuity of care as experienced by families receiving services through the children's mental health (CMH) system. A new measure, Continuity of Care in Children’s Mental Health (C3MH), is presented. The project involved four phases: item generation, pre-testing, pilot testing, and validation. In the validation study, the 42-item C3MH was administered to 364 parents of children and youth (M =12 …

Measuring Motivation For Coursework Across The Academic Career: A Longitudinal Invariance Study, Makayla Grays

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Students must be sufficiently motivated in order to achieve the intended learning outcomes of their college courses. Research in education and psychology has found motivation to be context-dependent. Therefore, students’ motivation is likely to differ from one semester to the next according to which courses students are taking. However, there are also instances in which motivation levels may not change over time. In order to determine whether motivation for coursework changes across the academic career (and, if so, what variables may be related to that change), it is imperative to use a measure of motivation that is theoretically and psychometrically …

Effects Of Negative Keying And Wording In Attitude Measures: A Mixed-Methods Study, Chris M. Coleman

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Researchers often collect data on attitudes using “balanced” measurement scales—that is, scales with comparable numbers of positive and negative (i.e., reverse-scored) items. Many previous measurement studies have found the inclusion of negative items to be detrimental to scale reliability and validity. However, these studies have rarely distinguished among negatively-worded items, negatively-keyed items, and items with negative wording and keying. The purpose of the current study was to make those distinctions and investigate why the psychometric properties of balanced scales tend to be worse than those of scales with uniformly positive wording/keying. A mixed-methods approach was employed. In Study 1 (quantitative), …